Alright, whats the deal with 'manufactured' homes.

[laurence]

Oh, I've given up on pushing Fallbrook on you specifically, but I just meant a similar change of venue.

Oh, and if anyone tries to sell you on the wonders of Ramona, politely nod and back away. The gas station on main street has a cardboard sign that reads, "We pump yer gas!".

I think it's a clear winner over your curren situation. Having a little difficulty with the manufactured home, but that's just a hairball.

[rs0460a]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cute Fuzzy Bunny My wife couldnt continue to temporarily commute to her old job

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cute Fuzzy Bunny My wife can quit working the 2-3 days a week she's currently putting in any time she wishes, but loves the job and would like to continue for a while.

So, maybe it's time for her to retire? What's wrong with that...

[TromboneAl]

Quote:

Big "problem" is that its sort of out-of-the-way which would suck for a daily commuter but isnt bad for a retiree with a part time working spouse.

I can speak to this issue. From our house, it's 25 miles to the nearest town with population greater than 350. I find that even though we're retired, we still end up driving to town pretty often. Sometimes we want to do something in town in morning and evening, and that means two hours behind the wheel. It's an easy drive without much traffic, but sometimes it gets old.

DW used to drive DD to swim practice a few times a week. This involved dropping her off, then finding something to do in town for two hours (or driving home and back, not an option).

So, the point is that this is a consideration. For me it's worth it. But evaluate it objectively.

[USK Coastie]

CFB looks like a couple of trees are close to the house. A REALLY big consideration IMHO is to ensure that you have at least 30 ft and preferably 50 -100 feet of defensible land between you and the woods for fire protection. A plus is the pond. you can get a gas powered fire pump for about $300 then hoses and and nozzles and not rely on the local FD or DNR to evacuate you and let the place burn.

Place looks great lots of potential. I agree about leaving the burbs. Left in 2004 and don't regret it a bit. You will have issues if you ever have to move back.

[Brat]

I understand the vision of a family compound. However, you need to pay a visit to your local planning department. The land may have zoning restrictions that will frustrate your goals.

[riskadverse]

Sounds like a great deal to me. I'd probably try a low offer to begin with.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Well that was an interesting but unproductive day.

We started off with a last minute bank repo that had just hit the listings that day.

Easily the worst house and piece of land i've ever been in, let alone considering buying. The lot was practically vertical, the home appeared to have been built by demented goats, and at least 30 animals must have lived in it for about 20 years. The whole thing was ready to fall down, bare plywood on the exterior and flooring, an overpowering smell of urine, and absolutely not one square foot of anything that made me stop thinking of hitting it with a bulldozer.

Looks to me like neither the listing agent nor the bank, asking $465k, has actually seen that property.

Somewhat better stuff from there. A nice newer manufactured home on 5 acres that unfortunately had a huge fast running river running through the center of the property and 20' from the front door. A 30 year old stick built house on 2 acres where the property was beautiful but the owner had doubled the house square footage without permits...or a whole lot of forethought to design. One of the more interesting looking homes and a very unusual roof line. Great views, lots of level land, but for $477k and a home inspection report that was going to run to 85 pages of code violations and glitches...no thanks.

The large acreage property with the manufactured home was last. A beautiful home inside, appeared well made and sat on a large pad with plenty of paved space around it and carports for four cars. Unfortunately the land was more vertical than horizontal. One bend at the driveway led to about a 150' drop straight down. Several other points close to the home were one step out, 100' down. The driveway is tipped at about a 25+ degree angle at many places. Except for the 1/2 acre or so the house sat on and another flat spot near the pond, the land was unusable except for experienced cliff climbers.

Heres the fun part. The listing agent is there when we show up, and bear in mind the house has been for sale without offers since last may. First thing he does is get grumpy with me that our agent didnt call him and gripe about that a while because he already had someone in looking at the property. Turns out our agent called the owner, who has the same first name as the agent, and made the appt with him. Then the listing agent goes on to say how he spent the better part of two days positioning the cameras for the still shots and virtual tours to hide the vertical nature of the land.

Anyone want to explain to me why a sales person would be unhappy about two customers looking at something at the same time (which might create an air of competitiveness) or why a sales person would go to great lengths to hide a serious defect that would become very obvious the moment someone actually viewed the property?

All that aside, the home was great, there were several small restaurants, country stores and knick knack shops right in town a mile away. Lots of shopping in another town one exit up off the highway which is under 10 miles away. And the shopping mecca of the universe another 5-6 miles past that.

So no real worries locationally, but the land was simply not workable.

However I think we have our location. Just some unrealistic selling prices, some trashy houses to sift out, and wait a while for the right thing. I think i'll dial down the lot size a little, perhaps the house size a smidgeon, watch and wait.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ron'Da So, maybe it's time for her to retire? What's wrong with that...

Gosh, think you can talk her into it? So far I'm not having any luck. She loves her job, went to school a long time to get the degrees and qualifications to do it, and wants to work for at least another 10+ years.

I cant think of anything more fun than having her quit, but given that its only a couple of days a week and something she loves, she just wont go for it.

Given that there are about 42 hospitals within a 15 mile radius of the prospective new area, she certainly has plenty of opportunities.

[W2R]

OMG, what a terrible bunch of properties!!! I think that if I saw that many properties that were THAT bad in one day, I'd be very upset.

You're taking this experience with such a great attitude! With an attitude that befits a Cute Fuzzy Bunny, entirely.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Hey, we got out of town, drove around, snooped inside peoples homes, saw an old realtor friend for the first time in years, saw some nice views, and had a good lunch. And except for a little gas and the lunch, it was free!

It was just a ridding of the outliers...in this case I hoped location was the weakness in a large home, large property, lower cost property. Seems in these cases there were also serious defects that probably warranted an even lower price but the sellers arent yet to the point of reason on that.

So watch and wait, adjust the dials a little, and look forward to another days reconnaissance in a few weeks or month(s).

[Jarhead*]

[quote=Cute Fuzzy Bunny ]

Fuzzy: You provided a morale boost, I'm sure, for the rest of the board that isn't living in Calif., with your shopping for a house "California-Style.

For the rest of the board, "Fuzzy's" real-estate adventure's are in the low rent district of Calif.

So, especially for the posters that are in snow country, happen to tune in to the Rose Bowl Game in January, and see the crowd in shorts, reflect on Fuzzy's post and you'll feel a little warmer.

Jarhead, a demented life-long Californian.